By Airam Fernández. The family of Nicole Saavedra Bahamondes finally secured a meeting at the Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor's Office, a year and a half after her murder and repeated marches demanding justice and a swift investigation. The meeting was prompted by a formal request, made in late November, for prosecutor Juan Emilio Gatica to be removed from the case. Initially, Olga and María Bahamondes—the victim's mother and cousin—were scheduled to meet with Regional Prosecutor Pablo Gómez Niada yesterday afternoon. However, at the last minute, he canceled, citing an "emergency." Two assistant lawyers from the regional office attended in his place, and the family spoke with them for an hour. Silvana del Valle, the family's lawyer and coordinator of the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women, was also present at the meeting.

A little bit of hope

“For the first time, I feel quite confident that they will help us,” says María, cousin of the young lesbian woman who was kidnapped and tortured in Limache, and who has also taken on the role of spokesperson and is handling all the legal proceedings for the case. “The lawyers explained to us that changing the prosecutor is difficult, but that they will let the regional prosecutor know what we are requesting. They showed concern and took the time to read the case file. They acknowledged that a lot of time has been lost and that there are things that haven't been done. They showed empathy and said that no one deserves to die that way. That's why we have hope,” says María. Silvana del Valle also views this meeting with optimism, especially because the Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor's Office committed to working together with the Sexual Crimes Unit in Santiago to advance the investigation. “The request to change the prosecutor is still pending, but we do see this news as progress,” she says.

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Since Nicole was murdered, the questions the Limache Prosecutor's Office has yet to answer remain the same: How did she end up in Limache (a town 126 kilometers from Santiago), so far from where she lived? Where was she and with whom in the hours before she died? What happened during the week she was missing? Was she tortured during that time or only before she was murdered? How was she transported to Los Aromos hill in Limache, where her body was found? After the meeting, the Prosecutor's Office did not give a deadline for communicating the results of the new investigations, but both the family and their lawyer will evaluate in January whether or not to take further action. "We believe a month is enough time to see if there are any changes. If there aren't, we'll see what to do," says María.